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How exactly does this happen? I know they lost Carl Crawford, so that should be good for a pick, but who else did they lose? How does MLB allow this? 10 of the first 60 picks? For a playoff contending team? How about throwing a few picks to the perennial cellar dwellars like Baltimore and Pittsburgh?

I've thought for a while that a team shouldnt get compensation for losing middle relief. If a reliever doesnt close out say 75% of a teams save oppurtunities then the team shouldnt get anything for him

Ultimately though, this is why smart teams put more into the draft and try to excel at grooming talent. It's not just the top couple rounds that matter under the current system though. If you lose a Type A Free Agent that was originally drafted in the 30th round. You still end up with compensation.

The Orioles likely wont get anything until what? 2016! That said I would rather see the draft budget get enormous than trying to sign players like Mike Gonzales, Garret Atkins, Kris Benson etc...

The Rays have excelled! Though they've lost players they reap the rewards.

History says they've drafted pretty well, if not with a 100 percent rate of success. They also managed to turn Delmon Young into Matt Garza, and just flipped Garza for another haul of prospects. They're doing just fine.

Fine would be bringing home some hardware.....please until that point, they still have yet to win a world series. I give them credit for building the foundation, but I will not agree that they are a well run organization. Well run organizations would have kept Hamilton and nurtured him better. Well run organization would not have a revolving door for player development. I will not heap praise, simply because they have a lot of faults to go with the success.

I agree the draft will always have it's share of disappointments. No team is perfect. The Orioles have a long history of that all on their own. However, the concept of building the bulk of your team through the draft and to a far lesser extent international signings appeals to me. Free agency is good for filling a spot here and there. The average fan still thinks that signing that big name free agent every year will turn a team completely around. It does not.

Don have you read Josh Hamiltons book? It wasnt just the Rays that gave up on him, his own parents had as well. He was no longer a baseball player and just simply a crack addict. Thats by his own admission.

The Rays played the game well but many teams have taken advantage of the system. When you have organizations making handshake deals with players to not accept arbitration it clearly goes against the draft's intent. There are lots of changes I would like to see made, some might have merit, some will be laughed at but whatever, that is what opinions are for.

1. Make signing Type A free agents punitive. As it is now, you can sign multiple players per year and the cost of doing so is less and less so it makes sense to sign more of than one per year. So the change would be for each player you sign, you lose 1st and 2nd round picks for consecutive seasons.

2. All compensation picks shall come at the end of each round. This ensures each round's value based on winning percentage record, not on the luck of a team signing your former player.

3. Reduction in the number of protected picks. I think the number should be in the range of 6 and 8. This ties into #2.

4. Elimination of the supplemental round. Again this ties into #2.

5. Minimum number of years/games played before compensation can be granted. I would say 2 seasons worth of games is sufficient amount of time investment.

6. Type status should be determined by individual positions, general role of the player, not averaged against several positions.

Don wrote:Fine would be bringing home some hardware.....please until that point, they still have yet to win a world series. I give them credit for building the foundation, but I will not agree that they are a well run organization. Well run organizations would have kept Hamilton and nurtured him better. Well run organization would not have a revolving door for player development. I will not heap praise, simply because they have a lot of faults to go with the success.

You really don't think Tampa is a well run organization? Until they win the world series they are not doing fine?

No org. is perfect. Tampa has many limitations to overcome that most don't. Still, they have built a system set up to contend now and in the future despite a miniscule budget. That constitutes well run to me.

It is not their farm system; it is the top to bottom organizational approach that I do not care for one bit. The revolving door at the top and they wonder why they fail to keep the stands pack. They cannot even keep their superstars. I would never be a fan of that organization simply because soon Longoria is somewhere else, David Price is somewhere else and the list goes on forever.

But I for one never thought Tampa Bay area should have ever been selected as a MLB city. Lived their long enough, business owner in region, they fail to support everything and anything.

While good, I never think they will be great until you see some of their stars stay beyond arbitration. I guess this is the crux of my position. They are better than the Orioles right now, but at least the Orioles will keep and grow from within the organization long term. I just do not see Tampa doing it unless it is on the cheap and I mean dirt cheap.